Picked up a used oscilloscope and figured out I was reading my power supply ripple wrong for 2 years

I was diagnosing a weird flicker on a client's custom build last month and dusted off an old Tektronix 465 that the shop had sitting around. Turns out I was setting the probe to 1x instead of 10x on my meter the whole time, which made my ripple measurements look way higher than they actually were. A buddy of mine who does audio repair walked me through it in about 20 minutes, and I felt like an idiot. That single change saved me from ordering a $150 replacement PSU that probably didn't need swapping. Has anyone else had a basic tool setup mistake that made you question your whole troubleshooting process?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor_barnes592d ago

Wait, wasn't the 1x setting actually more accurate for that kind of measurement?

terry_mitchell2d ago

Heard someone on a podcast the other day talking about this exact thing. They were saying the 1x setting on these older models actually had better resolution because it wasn't doing any digital zoom or processing. Makes sense when you think about it, just like how my old point and shoot from 2010 takes sharper pictures in good light than my phone does. But then again, the 1x might be slower to focus or need more light to work right. So it really depends on what you're trying to measure or shoot.

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